The clubs used in the game of golf all into three types, i.e., woods, irons, and putters.
Woods are clubs having heads which were at one time made exclusively of wood, and even today are often made of wood. The driver of No. 1 club is general used for hitting a ball on a tee. It has the longest shaft, permitting the generation of maximum head speed. The other woods, generally called fairway woods, are numbered 2 to 5 and have progressively shorter shaft lengths, and progressively increasing slopes in the striking face of the head, permitting the ball to be more easily lifted from the ground while imparting more spin to it. The heads are also progressively smaller and heavier. The striking faces of wood clubs are not flat but slightly rounded with a horizontal curve called "bulge" and a vertical curve called "roll."
Irons have shorter shafts than those on woods, and heads which are usually made of metal.
Putters are used to roll the ball into the hole on the greens.
In all golf club heads, the part near the shaft is called the heel, the part away from the shaft is called the toe, and the part holding the shaft is called the hosel or the neck. The part hitting the ball is called the face and the part close to the ground is called the sole.